Replies

Ooooooooggaaaahhhhh! That will really change people's votes. Isn't blackmail illegal?

This could get interesting.

Gay activists are some of the meanest and nastiest people on earth.

Aids is way up in LA, they're "indignant" that someone should want to regulate(not close), their bathe houses and sex clubs, by requiring condoms.

Personally I hope these morons don't use condoms.

Boy these people are arrogant!

Isn't it possible that gay people might actually not want gay marriage?

Bring it on...uh, don't bring it on, just crawl back under your rocks and do whatever homos do...

They ONLY want "equal rights". /sarcasm

John Aravosis, a gay activist who led a boycott of ‘Dr. Laura’ Schlessinger’s television show three years ago, recently started a petition aimed at stopping a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage.

“We certainly favor gay marriage and are pushing for that, but don’t you dare amend the Constitution,” Aravosis said. “It was the religious right freaking out and attacking us that made us decide now is the time to launch this.”

The Million for Marriage campaign allows voters to sign a vow saying, “I DO: I do support the right of every American to marry, including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender couples.”

“What we need is people perceived as staunch Democrats, staunch Republicans and staunch independents who are saying, ‘I’m not even supporting my party,’” Aravosis said.

The quest for marriage is a new frontier in the gay rights movement, and battling opponents requires unprecedented unity among activists and organizations, according to gay activists.

“I think the overriding imperative for our community is to unite against the threat we are facing,” said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. “If we don’t unite, we’re going to lose, and lose badly.

The best thing that anyone that is accused could do is follow Hillary's lead, ignore it. Actually, I think that would be a good come back, they should all say that they are simply going to follow Hillary's lead on similar allegations, and just move on.

Isn't that a HATE CRIME?

John Aravosis

His Matthew Shepard website touched us all and changed online activism forever.

The New Republic
October 23, 2000
StopDrLaura.com
by John Aravosis

"Dr. Laura" Schlessinger had it coming. Known for her take-no-prisoners conservatism and her biting tongue, she calls homosexuality a "biological error" and suggests that a "huge portion of the male homosexual populace is predatory on young boys." To many in the gay community, Paramount Television's decision to reward such slander with a TV talk show this fall reeked of a double standard: Had Schlessinger called blacks or Jews genetically deficient, Hollywood wouldn't touch her with a ten-foot pole. So, on March 1, three friends and I launched StopDrLaura.com to educate Paramount and its parent company, Viacom, about Dr. Laura's extreme anti-gay rhetoric.

The Internet provides activists with the ability to reach and empower even disparate constituencies. The gay community in particular lives in a diaspora. Most gays and lesbians are born into heterosexual families and must affirmatively seek out others like themselves, unlike children born black or Jewish. The religious right, our number-one nemesis, has always had the advantage of gathering its "family" every Sunday, which provides a ready-made venue for indoctrinating the troops on a regular basis. But for a new generation of gays and lesbians, the Internet is our church, our gathering place. And we go every day.

In addition, gay civil rights advocates have long had to contend with activists who are afraid of getting politically involved, fearing for their families, their jobs, and their lives. The Internet, and the anonymity and safety it provides, offers closeted gays an opportunity to fight back for the first time in history. Sean Williams, who runs an extremely popular online community called SeanPatrickLive.com, says the Internet is of particular benefit to gay activism because it empowers closeted gays to "publicly stand up for themselves in a private way."

JOHN ARAVOSIS is president of Wired Strategies, an Internet consulting group.

"Aravosis has taken stories that might have been ignored and made them front page."

- The Net Effect: How Cyberadvocacy is Changing the Political Landscape, 1999

John Aravosis is a Washington veteran. As a lawyer, writer and political strategist, he has provided counsel on political, technological, and legal issues to the federal government, non-profit organizations, the media and private industry. With over ten year's experience in both public policy and technology, Aravosis is uniquely positioned to help organizations apply the Internet and advanced communications technology to their daily work and long-term mission.

Advocacy

Before starting Wired Strategies, Aravosis served as the "online organizer" at the Children's Defense Fund (CDF). At CDF, John Aravosis devised and implemented the online strategy for the successful CHILD Act campaign, gaining the passage of a new $24 billion federal program to assist uninsured children. He was also responsible for creating and managing one of the nation's earliest, largest and most effective child advocacy email/fax networks -- providing policy information and action steps to over 5,000 child advocacy organizations, media representatives, government agencies and concerned citizens from Tennessee to Tanzania. The success of CDF's online network is discussed in the book NetActivism, by O'Reilly & Associates. In addition, CDF's home page -- with Aravosis' assistance -- was recognized by YAHOO! as one of the Web's top sites.

Media

John Aravosis has appeared on ABC's World News Tonight, CNBC's HardBall with Chris Matthews and The Squawk Box, FOX's O'Reilly Factor, the Montel Williams Show, the BBC, the Voice of America, and National Public Radio, and in the Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, MSNBC, CNet, and a variety of other media outlets. His public commentary on Internet advocacy, online privacy issues, and US politics includes talks and workshops at the annual Points of Light Conference, the American Society of Association Executives, the National Education Association, Georgetown University, American University, HandsNet, the Public Relations Society of America, InterAction, and Hogan & Hartson law firm. Aravosis is also co-author of the online advocacy chapters of two books about the Internet and non-profits, is the subject of a chapter in the new book The Net Effect: How Cyberadvocacy is Changing the Political Landscape. Aravosis is also a professional writer, and has been published in the Economist, the New Republic, the New York Daily News, About.com and more.

Politics

In addition to his expertise in online strategy, Aravosis has significant political experience, having served five years as a legislative attorney for US Senator Ted Stevens, and assisting on the campaigns of Senators Ted Kennedy and Chuck Robb. He also has a long record of international experience, having worked with the World Bank, the Lyonnaise des Eaux in France, the US Embassy in Argentina, the Italian Embassy in Washington, former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, the City of Barcelona, non-governmental organizations in Cote d'Ivoire, and for the US Department of State in Morocco, Indonesia, France, and Italy. In addition to English, Aravosis speaks Spanish, French, Italian and Greek.

Wired Strategies' current and past clients include the US Department of State, the US Department of Health and Human Services, the United States Information Agency, Priceline.com, MicroStrategy, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, the Widmeyer-Baker Group, the Georgetown University Law Center, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, America's Promise, the National Education Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, and AFSCME.

Wired Strategies also helps a number of international clients, having:

Conducted online strategy trainings and seminars in France and Italy;

Designed an Internet strategy for the City of Barcelona, Spain;

Developed an international online campaign for a European-based non-profit;

Trained non-profits in Cote d'Ivoire and Indonesia in online strategies.

John Aravosis has a Juris Doctor and Master's in Foreign Service (1989) from Georgetown University (where he studied under former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright), a degree from the University of Paris, and a BA in Rhetoric from the University of Illinois.

The fact is there are many gay and lesbians who oppose gay marriage. Including Tammy Bruce.

This is about the meanspirited nature and spitefulness of gay activists toward ANYONE who dares disagree with their agenda.

It won't net them anything but ridicule if they out the 'handful'. It'll backfire horrible (or wonderfully).

Tuesday, June 15, 2004
There You Go Again...

This comes from John Aravosis direct from the tarmac of the Chicago O'Hare Airport. He notes with astonishment that Vice President Dick Cheney continues to peddle the suspect claim that Saddam Hussein has "long-standing ties to Al Quaeda." Am I crazy, wonders Aravosis, or is this the same bs that the Bush-Cheney administration peddled before the war and has had to back off repeatedly when it couldn't offer any facts? This quote is buried in a New York Times article in which the Red Cross politely suggests that Saddam Hussein will have to be charged with something soon in order to stay within the internationally accepted standards of the Geneva Convention. Of course, the Red Cross forgets that Bush has long since discarded the Geneva Convention as a tiresome bunch of rules that don't apply to him. God help our underpaid, overworked, stretched-thin men and women in uniform if and when they ever get captured by enemy combatants.

******

Here is the reply, that I personally received, from the Red Cross about the charge made about releasing Saddam Hussein...

thank you for your email regarding the American Red Cross position on recent media concerning Saddam Hussein. It is important that the public understand that counterstatements from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have been very clear that no one from the ICRC ever advocated for his release. See message below.

If you have further questions, please let me know. You can view breaking news regarding the American Red Cross on our public website by visiting www.redcross.org

Thank you,
Candy Carey, Executive Director

Response to Query: Messaging on ICRC and Saddam Hussein June 14, 2004 - 6:15 p.m.

On Monday, June 14, 2004, the British newspaper The Guardian reported that the International Committee of the Red Cross stated that "Saddam Hussein must either be released from custody by June 30 or charged if the United States and the new Iraqi government are to conform to international law." The ICRC made no such statement as reported by this and other international media.

"Any prisoner of war suspected of having committed any type of crime can be charged and tried," said Antonella Notari, chief spokeswoman of the ICRC. Notari said she wanted to make clear that the ICRC has no desire to see the release of any PoWs, including Saddam, who are suspected of criminal acts. In an interview with the Associated Press on Monday she added, "Nobody in the ICRC is calling for the release of Saddam Hussein. Absolutely not."

So much for staying out of other people's SEX LIVES...

Advocates questioned the Paulks' story. "We don't know if he's still gay, or whether she was ever really a lesbian. A lot of people are wondering whether the Paulks are ex-gays after all," said John Aravosis, an online advocate who has been following the ex-gay issue.

Aravosis said the new revelations about the Paulks raise the following troubling questions:

1) In 1993, after the Paulks were already married, John Paulk said neither he nor his wife was "totally healed" of their gay orientations. Are they both totally healed now? Are they both "totally heterosexual"?

2) How many of the 800 ex-gays pictured in the recent full-page newspaper ads are also not totally healed?

3) Does John Paulk still not have "the intensity for sex with women" of the "average man on the street"?

4) Does John Paulk still have any sexual attraction to men at all?

5) Did Anne Paulk ever have sex with a woman? If so, will she name even one woman?

6) Did Anne Paulk ever have a sexual attraction to women, and does she still?

7) How often do the Paulks have sex?

8) Is the Paulks' child conceived naturally, through artificial means, or by adoption?

"It's telling that militant fundamentalists keep recycling the same ex- gay stories year after year'" said Aravosis. "If the Paulks are the best the radical right has to offer, it's not clear there are any ex-gays out there at all."

Why can't someone be homosexual and also against same sex marriage? They are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

"They think they can attack their community by day and enjoy themselves by night."

If they're doing what you propose then I want to know...I don't care what party they belong to...if it's a queer then we should know!

In this day and age, it doesn't really matter that someone in government is gay. So who cares if they're "outed"?

Terroristic threats -- that's what it sound like to me!